Solar sellers slammed
25 April 2010
Solar thermal systems offer the promise of free hot water from the sun, but 10 out of 14 installers exaggerated the potential savings in an undercover investigation* by consumer champion Which?
Everest and Ideal Solar Energy potentially broke the law, using dodgy sales tactics and hugely over-stating the potential benefits of installing a solar thermal system. An independent expert calculated such a system would cut about 10 per cent from the Which? household’s annual gas bill, but Ideal Solar Energy quoted savings of 50 per cent, while Everest quoted a 43 per cent cut**. Everest also claimed the home owner would save £35,000 over 20 years, a massive exaggeration***.
Both companies used the classic hard sell tactic of offering huge discounts if the buyer signed up on the day, depriving them of the time needed to make an informed choice****.
Not one of the 14 companies tested identified all the important technical challenges***** before providing a quote, and five provided a quote over the phone without even bothering to visit the property. Just one company, Southern Solar, was found to be helpful and provide sensible advice.
Peter Vicary-Smith, Chief Executive, Which?, says:
“Most of the firms in our investigation behaved like true cowboys - they promised huge savings that bore no relation to reality, and some really piled pressure on the homeowner to sign up immediately or risk losing a one off ‘special offer’.
“The solar industry is too important to our long-term energy needs for things to drag on like this. It needs to clean up its act, and if it won’t, the OFT and the government will have to step in.”
Last year, the OFT received 1,000 complaints about the solar panel industry – far too high for an industry with under 100,000 installations in UK homes******.
Which? is sending its research to the solar trade bodies and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Homeowners wishing to install solar panels can find more information and advice on the Which? website at www.which.co.uk/solar.
Notes to Editor
Mysteries of the solar system appears in the May 2010 issue of Which? magazine. For more information, a copy of the article, or an interview, please contact Judith Adams on 020 7770 7565 or
[email protected]Undercover footage of firms selling solar thermal systems will be available to view from Sunday 25 April at
http://www.which.co.uk/advice/how-to-buy-solar-panels/solar-panel-installation/index.jsp .
*Which? went undercover after seeing a rise in complaints about the solar panel industry. Early in 2010, Which? asked 14 companies to quote for the installation of a solar thermal system at a property in south-east England. All visits were filmed and all calls recorded, then a heating engineer with solar thermal technology expertise was asked to assess them against a checklist of key aspects of industry codes of practice. Which? also asked a senior trading standards officer to check the recordings for misleading claims and hard sell tactics.
**It is an offence for a company to make misleading or false statements that cause consumers to buy products. It is also unlawful to deprive people of the time needed to make an informed choice. The trading standards officer consulted by Which? felt that the precise nature of Everest’s figure made the claim even more misleading as it appeared to have been carefully calculated and would cause consumers to place undue reliance on its accuracy. Ideal Solar Energy misquoted energy regulator Ofgem to talk up savings, claiming 70 per cent of a home’s gas costs go on hot water and 30 per cent on heating, when in fact it is the other way around.
***Which? experts calculated that a typical solar thermal system would cut the total gas bill in the property by about 10 per cent, saving around £55 a year. That’s a pay-back time of 100 years based on current gas prices and the average quote of £5,500 to install a solar thermal system. Everest’s quote of saving £35,000 over 20 years is vastly over-stated. Even if gas prices went up an unlikely 500%, the saving over 20 years would still just be £5,000.
****Everest slashed an already high quote of £11,500 (about three times the lowest quote) to a still high £8,500 if the homeowner signed up to the sale immediately. Ideal Solar Energy dropped its price from £8,690 to £6,520 if the homeowner signed up immediately; they followed up the next day with a phone call offering a new price of £5,860 if the homeowner paid a £400 deposit (which then dropped to £250) the same day.
*****The companies should have: inspected the rear south east facing roof from the ground; inspected the existing gas boiler; inspected the cold water tank in the loft; inspected the hot water cylinder; inspected the water quality (e.g. for limescale issues); and inspected the washing machine and dishwasher to see if they could use solar-heated water. Southern Solar identified most of these challenges and met guidelines for good practice, if not for best practice.
******In the last three years, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), has demanded that three particularly notorious companies – Smart Energy (UK) Ltd, Solar Technik Ltd (not to be confused with an unconnected company of the same name formed on 23 March 2010), which have both gone bust, and Ultimate Energy which has been dissolved – should stop misleading their customers. The OFT received around 1,000 complaints about the sector last year, which Which? thinks is far too high for an industry with under 100,000 installations in UK homes. Holiday insurers, damp-proofers and landlords attracted a similar number of complaints last year, but are used by a much greater number of people in the UK.
In response to the findings:
Everest says: “We’re disappointed that our representative failed to use the sales support documentation provided and made claims he knew to be false. We offer top-quality products and support this with a price promise and a seven day cooling-off period and deposit refund for customers who change their mind.”
Ideal Solar Energy says: “Like all retailers, we offer limited promotions on a selected basis.” Ideal maintain that they tell their agents that no specific details should be given in relation to the reduction in any household energy bills and that they recently introduced a calculation based on a government formula to estimate the performance of a solar thermal system.
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